Check out this the HECTOR spider robot

by Mark R

This spidery looking robot is designed by the University of Bielefeld’s Department of Biological Cybernetics, and it is the HECTOR, which is a weird quasi-acronym meaning the HExapod Cognitive auTonmously Operating Robot.

This mechanical arachnid is about a meter long, and weighs in at 12 kilograms, with 13 percent of it being the exoskeleton. I’m not certain what percentage of a real spider’s weight is its exoskeleton, but it does have joints on its legs that allow for 20 degrees, just like a real spider.

This is one of those robots that I would like to see made, if it didn’t creep me out so much. I think that there is something about spiders that tend to freak people out. Perhaps that is why there were these mechanical spiders hunting Tom Selleck in the movie Runaway. Man, going back in time for that reference!

Here’s a more recent reference, as HECTOR looks a little like the IC Hexapod that we reported on three years ago, which bore a strong resemblance to the probe droid from The Empire Strikes Back.

I wonder what is the use of this mechanical arachnid. Perhaps it could be used to take pictures, but it is too large to be covert.